13. Australia 10% Unemployment for 9.6% Dents Gillard Prosperity

Keith Darley, a 34-year-old electrician, hears from the government that Australia is the envy of the developed world. Yet the father of two, who employed 22 people a year ago, now works alone and says he’ll be voting against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the Sept. 14 election.

he world’s 12th biggest economy boasts the lowest benchmark interest rate in 53 years, unemployment less than half of Europe’s, contained inflation and an economic growth rate double the average of advanced nations. Even with these conditions -- the best since Gough Whitlam took office in 1972 - - Gillard’s ruling Labor Party is 10 percentage points behind the Tony Abbott-led opposition.

“When we see a story that Gillard claims the government has created 900,000 jobs, we know that doesn’t stack up here; that’s not our experience,” said Darley, who lives in Sydney’s western suburbs, where eight of Labor’s 72 national seats are threatened and the unemployment rate is as high as 14 percent. “The voters here are not going to support Tony Abbott because they think he’s better, they’re going to be voting against the current government because they’re sick of hearing everything’s great when they know it’s not.”

Darley reflects a widening gap among Australia’s regions and industries. While national unemployment was 5.4 percent in December, the rate was 10 percent or higher in 9.6 percent of the nation’s 1,402 regions, according to government data that dates back to 2008. In some parts of Brisbane, where five Labor seats are in play, joblessness exceeds 27 percent -- the highest on record for the areas.